Massachusetts Democratic Party

The Massachusetts Democratic Party is the Massachusetts branch of the US Democratic Party. The party lacked a well-organized structure and strong leadership for much of the 19th century, at which time the Democrats were conservative and their liberal Republican Party foes dominated politics, but demographic changes in the 1920s and 1930s led to many Catholic working-class people and immigrants voting Democratic. The party dominated the state legislature for decades, starting with the rise of Democrats such as John F. Kennedy during the 1950s. The governorship essentially alternated between Democrats and Republicans for many years after the 1990s, but the state consistently voted Democratic after 1984, having voted for Republican nominee Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. In 2017, it held 33/40 State Senate seats and 126/160 State House of Representatives seats.